Charlton Heston & nudity

What was up with Charlton Heston and his seemingly lack of clothes in most of his films? I always figured the PEPLUM genre asked him to do these scenes (in TEN COMMANDMENTS or BEN-HUR...) but Charlton was also seen sans clothes in other films like PLANET OF THE APES, THE OMEGA MAN and SOYLENT GREEN so one can't blame the PEPLUM genre for this. I don't think there's ever been an actor who was seen in the buff as much as he was. If you search google for any Heston nudity you'll find a good number of photos which I won't post in this article. Was it in his contract or he was simply an exhibitionist?

Charlton in JULIUS CAESAR (1950); one of his first film roles and when we see him for the first time in that film he's nearly naked. The trend would continue in almost all his films.

10 comments:

Apparently Heston was never shy about nudity, because when he first came to New York to make it as an actor after World War II, he and his wife both worked as artists models -- i.e., they posed nude for life drawing classes at the various colleges and arts schools around town -- something he freely admitted in interviews.

Got to give him credit for remaining fit his whole life -- not many 50-year old actors would strip down to a teeny tiny loin cloth.

A little saggy and gross in the later pics but, as Max Bialystock said, "If you got it, flaunt it, baby." And baby had some stuff worth flaunting in his salad days. Still a bit scrawny, but the JC 50 picture is otherwise a good example.

He was an absolutely gorgeous beautiful man, with such a body it would be a sin not to show it, and as the previous comment said their nude pictures were not vulgar at all but simply natural, to women it is a real pleasure to see such a real tall, strong good looking man, he was like a greek monument but better!! And besides his unquestionable good looks, he was an outstanding talented actor!! What more can you ask!!

Heston was an exhibitionist. I knew an assistant director, Chico Day, who told me he loved to accidentally (on purpose) leave his trailer door open when he was nude and often dropped his towel in his dressing room in the presence of others.

I always admired Charlton Heston in films and think I saw most of them from Ben Hur onwards. I never saw anything vulgar or lewd in his semi-nude scenes, as someone said earlier, "if you've got it flaunt it". I have to be honest and say that he lost my respect in latter years when he actively promoted gun toting laws.

Here was a man, Charlton Heston, who walked shoulder to shoulder with Martin Luther King before it was popular to do so. It was not only unpopular, it was a career killer as well as showing up on the FBI surveillance list. Charlton did this and other things against the desire of many a studio executive who threatened his career for his outspoken support for civil rights.

Heston stood tall and proud and supported the rights of his friend Martin Luther King...and you're going to 'lose respect' for him because he fought for your constitutional rights, as well, simply because you don't agree with that right that you possess?

Good grief. If you are using Bowling for Columbine as a reference, it's a pity, because Moore deliberately took advantage of a man with Alzheimers disease and heavily edited that so-called interview. Even Bill Maher, no fan of guns by any stretch, holds that against Moore for disrespecting Heston. As he said to Moore on his show, 'You lost me with that'.

Regardless of what indoctrination methods people succumb to, Charlton Heston was a great actor and a great human being.